The state-run Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC) signed agreements Friday with 18 local companies that have pledged to invest a combined total of NT$55.4 billion (US$1.89 billion) in major harbors in Taiwan.
TIPC said the investments are expected to create about 5,600 jobs and generate NT$30.6 billion in tax revenue for the government over the next two to three years. The 18 companies, from the shipping, logistics, manufacturing and international trade sectors, include Evergreen Marine Corp., China Petrochemical Development Corp., and state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan, TIPC officials said.
China Petrochemical Development is planning to invest more than NT$35 billion, the largest single investment, to build artificial fiber and plastics production facilities in a petrochemical park in the Port of Taichung in central Taiwan, the officials said. Evergreen Marine, the country’s largest shipping company, will pour funds into Kaohsiung Port in southern Taiwan to improve its facilities there with the aim of using the harbor as an operations hub.
However, the officials did not disclose financial details about the Evergreen investment. Meanwhile, TIPC said cargo volume handled by Taiwan’s four major harbors, the ports of Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien, in the first 10 months of this year rose 4.13 percent from a year earlier to 11.59 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Cargo volume handled by the four harbors for cross-Taiwan Strait trade during the same period rose 8.52 percent from a year ago to 1.76 million TEUs, the port operators said. TEUs are the measurement for cargo capacity of container ships or container terminals.
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Source: Central News Agency, November 16, 2012